Showhouse Kitchen with Great Use of Texture

White rift-sawn oak cabinets bleached to the shade of driftwood are a sunny nod to the nearby ocean and vacation setting of the Hampton Designer Showhouse. They also speak volumes to the fresh mix designer Robert Bakes brings to his projects. Rather than install an all-white kitchen (nearly ubiquitous in new homes in the Hamptons), the designer warmed the space with a mix of white-painted and bleached-wood finishes. “When oak is bleached and stained, it takes the heavy orange color out and translates into a softly textured surface, appropriate to the ocean setting,” Bakes says. “And rift oak with its linear grain injects texture and a slightly more modern feel. I like to mix things up.”

Textures and colors are repeated throughout the room to create balance and symmetry—signature elements of Bakes’s design. Twin refrigerator doors equipped with chunky vintage-inspired latches and freezer drawers below flank a built-in microwave oven and a warming drawer. On the opposite wall is a bowed vent hood that Bakes designed with a bleached oak veneer and polished-nickel bands and rivets.

While the range and hood are a visual focal point, they don’t dominate the room. “I avoid having one thing that overwhelms the rest of the design. Everything should flow and balance—there shouldn’t be one thing that jumps out and grabs your eye,” Bakes explains.

The range is centered on the island, which is topped with a slab of quartzite with strongly linear gray-toned veining. The quartzite is repeated on the range backsplash, where the veining runs vertically.

Triangular marble tiles on the countertop backsplash—arranged in a diamond pattern and punctuated with polished nickel dots—add a hint of sparkle and play well with the classic white quartz surfacing on the perimeter counters. “It’s nice to have that clean palette that brings everything together,” Bakes says. “My concept was to create a kitchen that warmly envelops and gives a feeling of comfort and safeness to those in the space,” he adds. That concept was continued in the adjoining keeping room designed by Patricia Fisher.

“When Bob and I showed each other our palettes, we were pleased to see they were so compatible and harmonious,” Fisher says. Her serene gray-and-cream palette with chartreuse accents blended beautifully with Bakes’s kitchen scheme, and didn’t compete with the house’s fabulous garden and swimming pool views. Bakes was so taken with Fisher’s wallcovering choice—a subtle metallic-weave grass cloth—that he continued it into one area of the kitchen. In Fisher’s spaces, the wallcovering creates a pretty backdrop for the furnishings, which are more about silhouettes and textures than pattern. “There is some pattern on the rug and window treatments, but I really didn’t want to bog the design down with florals or checks. I wanted each element to pop and have breathing space,” Fisher says.

In the sitting area, Fisher partnered mid-20th-century bent-arm chairs with 21st-century tailored settees and a sofa. A custom-made rug in shades of gray and cream that was inspired by a tribal blanket from India grounds the sitting area in comfort. A grass-cloth wallcovering by Phillip Jeffries is highlighted with metallic flecks in the weave, creating a slightly shimmering backdrop. A graphite and pencil drawing by Christine Hiebert hangs above the mantel. “Art adds a whole different element to a room—texture, color, and personality,” says Fisher.

A window-lined bay was the natural place for a casual dining area, and Fisher chose a table with a sturdy pedestal base and rough-hewn finish that complements the driftwood cabinets in the kitchen. Vintage spool-turned dining chairs encircle the table, which is illuminated by a modernist orb chandelier. “When I first lifted the chandelier out of the box, I sort of gasped,” Fisher says. “It’s big, but it’s so open that it’s perfect there. It really creates a distinctive statement in that room.” The extra-large “Orb” from Ballard Designs fills the space above the table, but its open design doesn’t block window views or sunlight.

Tall windows are dressed with a gray-striped Pindler & Pindler fabric Fisher turned on its side that “brings a bold element into that space." Combined with sheer cafe curtains, the window treatments cozy the nook and provide a sense of privacy without blocking views or natural light. A vacation home requires plenty of flexible seating, and a shapely ceramic stool pulled up by the table is easy to move, doubling as an end table when needed.

Tall bookshelves and a two-tiered coffee table ensure there is plenty of space for books and games—always in demand at a vacation home. A square two-tiered coffee table provides spaces to store and play games. Painted in a gray lacquer, the table is also durable enough to serve as a footrest. “This space is for relaxing—for hanging out and dining with friends and family,” Fisher says.